Tag Archives: Golf

It was close at the halfway point, but then Price birdied on 4 of the last 6 holes and ran away with the win.

And like some of my other table top games (sports and war), I learned something that I didn’t know, this time it was about the man named Calvin Peete, the most successful African-American golfer prior to Tiger Woods.

I checked History Maker Golf’s All-Time Great set, and neither golfer is in it. Someone else did make a home brew card of Harry Vardon, though. The golf course from the story is not available in any of the course sets.

The APBA Golf game came with both golfers in the ATG sets. The included course is not the site of the 1913 US Open, however.

I suppose once I figure out how to make golfers and golf courses for History Maker Golf, I can recreate Francis Oumet and the Country Club golf course in Brookline, Massachusetts. Unless someone beats me to it.

For my first golf match, I decided to play two of the greatest golfers in history, at the course that I’ve seen the most on TV.

Jack Nicklaus, circa 1962

Arnold Palmer, circa 1954

Admittedly, I mostly just watch the Masters, if I ever do watch golf on TV.

The two golfers come from the All-Time Greats set, which rates them based on the year they turned pro, so this is 1962 Nicklaus vs. 1954 Palmer.

Like most if not all of PLAAY’s games, History Maker Golf weaves a story as you play, at it was honestly like watching a golf match on TV. You could hear the crowd responding to the golfer’s shots, both good and bad. You could see the ball as it traveled from the tee, onto the fairway, and eventually on the green.

And as luck would have it, these two greats ended up in a tie after 17 holes. And both golfers hit for par to end the round still tied.

I decided to play sudden death to determine the winner.

Palmer bogeyed the first hole.

But Nicklaus DOUBLE BOGEYED, giving Palmer the win.

I really like this game. I’m probably going to play a few more matches with 2-4 golfers, then try the tournament mode, and then start creating my own golfers, including Happy Gilmore, Shooter McGavin, maybe myself, and any of my friends who may be interested, or who actually play golf.

PLAAY Games appeal to me in that they don’t use raw stats to grade a player in a game. They generally use qualities or attributes which pretty much describe the athlete in question, in the sport in question, and through the use of charts and dice, fairly realistic results are generated.

Having never played golf (maybe for a week in high school, driving golf balls across a soccer field toward a hula hoop), I seem to have unusually high interest in golf games, as this is the fourth one in my collection, 5th if you include the one that I bought over 20 years ago and have not seen in about 15 years.

Oddly enough, I was about to pull out one of those other golf games to play with over the weekend.

The game itself comes with about 100+ golfers from the 2000s, and I ordered an all-time greats set with about 100 more. And I got the ‘how-to’ guide to build my own courses AND create my own golfers. If anyone wants to be included, let me know, and I’ll try to generate a card for you.